I am a mother and if you are a parent, you know that the greatest gift in this life is the gift of your children. There is nothing on this earth that I love more than my boys. They fill my life with joy and if anything ever happened to either one of them, I can tell you that I would be broken. When something happens to children in our community, there is an impact felt all around.

When a talented, vibrant child in our community dies suddenly, it has an effect on the community as a whole. I did not know Tyler Putnam. Many of us did not have the pleasure of knowing him. Through watching news accounts and reading the stories in the paper, though, it is easy to know that Tyler Putnam was an amazing child with so much to give and share in this world. He died Thursday of Meningococcemia, which is a form of meningitis and he was just 16–a boy with his whole life ahead of him.

According to a D & C article by Victoria Freile, Tyler also was an honor roll student and a lacrosse player. What a well-rounded kid with so much going for him. I am willing to bet he was a role model for his peers and younger children in the community because of his dedication to both sports and academics. I am also quite sure he made his entire family extremely proud.

Not even 2 months ago, there was a story about Tyler in our town’s paper about how he had been chosen to compete in the USA Hockey Select Festival. Tyler had played hockey for more than ten years with Maksymum Hockey. Making that USA Select team had to have been such an honor.

It just doesn’t make sense that just two months ago a family would be celebrating this honor and that their child would have been a junior at Irondequoit High this fall. How does this make any sense at all? I really think there is no way to make sense of something so tragic. Losing a child should be something no parent has to face.

My heart goes out to the family and friends who were blessed to have known Tyler Putnam. I think I can say for sure that this community wraps our arms around all of you at this time.

Bloggers

Carolyn Iman Stahl has a bachelor's degree from Nazareth College and a master's degree from The College at Brockport. After teaching full time for 10 years at Webster schools, Carolyn is now primarily a stay-at-home mom who moonlights as an English teacher.

Carolyn has lived in Irondequoit for 31 years. She enjoys being involved in the community and hopes this blog fosters a healthy sense of camaraderie among her fellow I-towners.